Scary story from the Valley....

The mental problems of Kenneth W. Baker of Churchville allowed him to avoid a murder prosecution a decade ago. Then, last week, the 42-year-old was accused of molesting a wheelchair-bound 97-year-old. And on Monday, July 27, an Augusta County grand jury indicted him in the 1998 incident, the death of Ruth Naomi Mays, whose body, bearing evidence of a rifle shot, was found in a septic tank next door to the home where Baker was then living. He's been charged with first-degree murder and firearms charges and faces a sentence up to life in prison if convicted.

12 comments

Mike Wiszowski July 24th, 2009 | 9:24am

I agree with you Sick, indeed if you spare the rod you WILL spoil the child. You see it every where nowadays. It feels like it all started when parents started getting arrested and ridiculed for diciplining their children like normal, loving parents would. I lived by the belt and cursed everytime my back and thighs were humbled by it's lashes but I now give thanks and respect to my parents for having done right by me. What's really funny is they would say that everytime I was diciplined! I said, "Never!".

However in the case of Mr. Baker I would have to agree with health officials in that he is mentally unfit for society. I mean fondelling an nonagenarian is wildly absurd behavior.

Sick of "Sick" July 25th, 2009 | 12:06pm

Well, Sick is continuing to show how far up his own backside his head really is. He takes a terrible criminal story and flaunts his own agenda without regard to reality. While I won't begin to get into why R10 has the number of employees they do have (why does any organization hire the number of people they have?), I can tell you that R10 employs a fine group of professional people who are looking out for a ever growing population of Central Virginians who have some form of mental illness. No, when we were younger there were not as many of these diagnosis made because no one understood them. They just took some of these people and sent them to institutions and tried to lock them up and throw away the keys. How many bullies did you know in school? How many kids did you know that kept failing their grade until they just dropped out? How many kids did you just call "retard"?
While there has been a trend to quickly label a child or an adult with a mental illness, a lot of it is a result of today's "Google-mentality". Need a quick diagnosis? Search the web.

For full disclosure, I have one of those kids that have been diagnosis as "Bipolar disorder". Trust me when I tell you that it wasn't quickly applied or just an effort to label a "misbehaving" child. With the help of several local professionals, we came to this difficult conclusion and are working to help my child deal with this situation and not use it as an excuse to act out. No "JOB SECURITY" involved here. Just professionals working to help a troubled child deal with a sickness within his own body.

So, "Sick", stop belittling your neighbors and area professionals and go volunteer your time at R10. Bet your eyes would be opened a bit; maybe even your ever closed mind.

Sick Of The Local Rambos July 23rd, 2009 | 10:25am

I would love to understand how Region 10 can justify 600 employees in the first place. That's totally absurd! No wonder this country is in the current financial crisis it's in. Just more people feeding at the public trough I suppose! I would be willing to bet that 550 of the 600 employees don't do a good day's work as much as one day a week.

Concerned July 23rd, 2009 | 8:04am

Region 10 has fired 11 employees. This happening right here in our own community. How do we expect to prevent problems such as the one in this article or many other problems that are the direct result of untreated mental illness and substance abuse by Ã¢â?¬Å?minimally maintain our current levels of care” as the director has stated.

Rumor has it that the reason for these firings has not yet been fully disclosed or reached the printed page. I hope the full story of this local tragedy will soon be told and those responsible held accountable. Otherwise we will see scary events in our own town as a direct result of these cuts.

Maybe those 11 got fired because they were the sort to let things like those in the linked story happen. Who's to say we aren't going to avoid scary events like this in our town as a direct result of those cuts.

Mental Health Advocate July 23rd, 2009 | 10:45am

Sick - you really ARE sick. Obviously you have never worked in the human services field. I would be willing to bet that the majority of Region 10 employees work harder and more hours than your average white collar worker...and, no, I am not an employee of Region 10 nor have I ever been. I have, however, worked with the MR population as well as on an acute psychiatric unit. Working with these populations is draining and extremely hard workd.

There are many, many people in our community who need the help and services that Region 10 provides. Any cut in services will impact those that Region 10 serves. Believe it or not, even with 600 employees, there are still times when people have to wait to get the services that they need.

I pray to God that you never end up on the other end of things, needing mental health help and being unable to afford it and unable to receive it from the local community services board due to such cuts.

accountant July 23rd, 2009 | 10:53am

Maybe this is another Glenmore ?

former employee July 23rd, 2009 | 12:21pm

You can all judge and ramble on about those 11 employees being laid off all you want. But the truth is you have NO IDEA how much Region 10 is needed in this community. They service Charlottesvlle and all the surrounding counties and trust me, they need their employees. You have no idea the amount of widespread mental illness and other needs that they service and you would be SHOCKED at how many mentally ill people we have living in this area. I just feel for the 11 people that got laid off. I personally have known a couple of them and they are amazing, capable individual with a desire to truly help the mentally ill in our community. So I tell you what.... get your facts straight first of all, then I challenge you to actually take a job working with this everyday. It takes special, dedicated and caring individual to do what they do. All my respect to the people who work at Region 10.

Sick Of The Local Rambos July 23rd, 2009 | 2:08pm

I haven't said a word about the 11 employess that were laid off. I asked how Region 10 can justify 600 employees in the first place? Face facts, a lot of the widespread mental illness in this community could have been solved at a very young age with a well placed application of a leather belt. It's darn sickening how all these fancy names for "mental illnesses" have been been born in the last 20 years. For example, take any kid between the ages of 12 and 20, and some shrink somewhere can attach a few different labels to them. It's called JOB SECURITY. Good God, what happened to our country? I turned out halfway decent, with no mental illnesses, because my parents and grandparents used a nice leather belt when I acted out a temper trantrum like a moron.

I recall the Andy Griffith episode where Opie Taylor is taught how to throw a temper trantrum by young friend of his. The friend told him he could get his way by acting up. In the year 2009, Opie could have been diagnosed with about 3 or 4 different mental illnesses causing this intentional behavior.

And for what it's worth, I worked around mental patients for close to 30 years. The vast majority of them could have won an Emmy for their performances. Once they put on their dog and pony show for the mental health professionsals, and once they were in the car headed to Western State Hospital for a free bed and 3 free meals a day, they were suddenly happy as a lark.

Concerned July 23rd, 2009 | 10:49am

We still need to know where the money that has been allocated by taxpayers has gone and if patient services will be cut or reduced that can't possibly be a good thing for the community.

Sick Of The Local Rambos July 23rd, 2009 | 11:13am

Mental Health Advocate, don't waste your time. You'll never convince me that 600 employees are necessary for the few counties that Region 10 services. Whenever the police take any person into the hospital in need of mental health services, it takes forever to find just one employee and get them to respond to the hospital. You wouldn't believe the manhours wasted while the cops sit around waiting on them.

Sick Of The Local Rambos July 24th, 2009 | 12:16pm

Mike, there is indeed true nut cases out there. But I still question Region 10 needing 600 employees in the small area they serve locally, and I question the many "mental illness" terms they want to attach to almost everybody who misbehaves. Especially young kids. There was no such thing as Attention Deficit Disorder, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Anxiety Disorder, Bipolar Disorder, Obsessive Complusive Disorder, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, and others when I was in school. If I brought home poor grades, I was punished accordingly... and trust me, I then improved my grades. I didn't need 20 employees at Region 10 prescribing me Ritalin to help adjust my attitude and grades, a leather belt worked fine.

It's all a money making scheme in the vast majority of cases. It also insures JOB SECURITY. Here in our small area it seems to be supporting 600 employees. That's JOB SECURITY at it's best!